“Catholic Feminism” and Divorce
Today's podcast is with two young grandmothers, one of whom's parents are divorced. We discuss if "Catholic feminism" is possible, as well as what it means to carry the cross in a Catholic culture full of easy annulments. The closed Facebook groups for adult children of divorce mentioned by my guests are found here.
Science and Religion Part 1: Epistemology
Epistemology is the study of how a knower can know things. It is a study of both the learner (the subject) and the learned topic (the object.) Epistemology is both subjective and objective. Science, on the other hand, is simply concerned with the learned topic, or the object, and hence we say that the goal of science is to be purely objective via data presented. Scientia is Latin for "knowledge." Science is the mind's conformity to reality, not to an agenda. This also presupposes that the mind, via the five senses, can actually grasp objective truth. Properly speaking, there is no room for a political agenda or even relativism in true science. Although St. Zechariah (the father of St. John the Baptist) was certainly not a relativist with a political agenda, we can grasp a little bit of the difference between [...]
Podcasted Sermon: What is a Miracle?
Today's sermon is from the 15th Sunday After Ordinary time that I gave at a diocesan parish while traveling of state in September 2019.
What is the Primacy of Conscience?
Jesus Christ can forgive, through His priests, the most serious mortal sins through baptism and confession. As most readers know, mortal sins (sins that lead to hell) are mortal if they are 1) grave material and 2) done with full-knowledge and 3) executed with full consent of the will. In a recent blog post, I reminded readers of 15 Mortal Sins that most Catholics don't know are grave matter. In today's article, I will try to unmask how Satan tricks amateur theologians on the other two criteria of mortal sin (full knowledge and full consent of the will.) For lack of more politically-correct terms, I have tried to identify the tricks of Satan upon two groups of American Catholics: Republican Catholic Modernists are pro-life voters who think they know the moral tradition of the Church, but don't (except a few very [...]
GladTrad 10.2: Restoration After Trafficking
This podcast is about how trafficking happens in the United States. We discuss child neglect, cell phones, run-aways, trauma and earning trust. Grace is the foundress of "Children of the Immaculate Heart" and we discuss her vision for recovery of girls who have been trafficked in her California based-home called "The Refuge," seen in pictures below on the blog. Again, the National Human Trafficking Hotline is 1-888-3737-888.
The Cross vs. Emotional Fulfillment in Marriage
By Fr. David Nix and Leila Miller As I have said in many sermons and blog posts, Catholics that use contraception have the same divorce rate as the rest of the United States—roughly 50%. Catholics who refrain from contraception have a divorce rate that is only 3%, even when all studies are averaged. But what about those 3% of Catholics who get a divorce while avoiding contraception? Crisis Magazine did a study about 15 years ago to ask why young Catholics who avoid contraception were getting divorces. The answer was one: They did not expect to suffer much in marriage. This blog post is written by my friend and author, mother and grandmother (and fellow Boston College grad) Leila Miller. Below, her words are in bold. My words are in italics. Mrs. Leila Miller: One really alarming trend I've seen [...]
GladTrad 10.1: Child Trafficking in the United States
On today’s podcast, Grace Williams, President of "Children of the Immaculate Heart" discusses what attracted her to the growing mission of rescue and recovery for the child victims of sex-slavery. The above featured image is a bedroom for formerly trafficked teens in CIH's home, "The Refuge." The National Human Trafficking Hotline is 1-888-3737-888.
Glad Trad 9.2: Br. Timothy, Diocesan Hermit
In today's podcast we hear more of the conversion of Br. Timothy and his advice on how to live the spiritual life.
Real Men of the Church Take Ownership
Real men take ownership. Cowards blame each other. In the below video, Navy Seal Jocko Willink describes a fire-fight in Iraq that went bad into a situation of deadly friendly-fire. At minute 8, Willink asks: "Who’s fault was this?” One Seal stood up and explained the deadly situation, adding: “…And it was my fault.” But then the next Navy Seal stands up and says: “It was my fault…” The next Navy Seal stands up and says: “No, it was my fault, because…” Again, watch time stamp 8:00 to 9:00: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljqra3BcqWM Contrast this to the below video from the 1960s where a young Irish priest asks an older Irish priest why so many changes were starting to take place in the Catholic Church in regards to altering dogma and an upcoming but total re-vamping of all ancient sacramental practices. The older [...]
3 Apologetics Points
There are many good books for Catholics to purchase to defend the Catholic Faith while talking to non-Catholics on topics such as the Resurrection of Jesus Christ or the Eucharist or the Immaculate Virgin Mary or even all Scriptural topics including Purgatory. But three debilitating moves for Catholics to use on Protestants while debating on-the-fly are as follows: 1) Disprove Sola Scriptura by reading Scripture Alone? 21 Reasons to Reject Sola Scriptura by Joel Peters. It can be found online or in $2 pamphlets from Amazon. It will take less than an hour to read, and it is undeniably the best little booklet to disprove the erroneous Protestant notion that Divine Revelation is found exclusively in the Bible. Consider St. Paul: "So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter."—2 [...]